The Evolution of Community Consultation in GTA Transit Planning

During the immediate postwar period, transit infrastructure underwent a vast expansion in the Toronto area. Tens of kilometres of new subway lines were built and commuter rail was introduced across one of the fastest-growing urban regions in Canada. This period was also characterized by a top-down approach to planning, with limited community consultation. Today, community consultation is formally embedded in the transit planning process, but is often the source of tension and mistrust. This paper describes what has changed since the 1960s. Using case studies of the Bloor-Danforth Subway (1966), the Davenport Diamond Project (2015– ), and the Hurontario Light Rail Transit Project (2010– ), the paper explores how planning in the immediate postwar period reflected a top-down, hierarchical structure that did not offer opportunities for meaningful community consultation and in which access, equity, and community-building were not priorities. In contrast, much contemporary planning has been characterized by the inability to satisfy an increased desire for public input in a meaningful way. The result is distrust between the public and planners.This paper suggests that community consultation should be integrated into the earliest stages of the planning process to ensure that such plans proceed into the expensive construction process, with its numerous contracted-out labour and technical aspects, with much broader support.